Frédéric Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, sometimes
Szopen; French: Frédéric François Chopin; )was a Polish piano
composer of the Romantic period. He is widely regarded as one of
the most famous, influential, and prolific composers for piano of
all time.
Chopin was born in the village of Żelazowa Wola, Duchy of Warsaw,
to a Polish mother and French-expatriate father. Hailed in his
homeland as a child prodigy, at age twenty Chopin left for Paris.
There he made a career as performer, teacher and composer, and
adopted the French version of his given names, "Frédéric-François."
From 1837 to 1847 he had a turbulent relationship with the French
writer George Sand (Aurore Dudevant). Always in frail health, at 39
he succumbed to pulmonary tuberculosis.[2]
All of Chopin's extant work includes the piano in some role
(predominantly as a solo instrument), and his compositions are
widely considered to be among the pinnacles of the piano's
repertoire. Although his music is among the most technically
demanding for the instrument, Chopin's style emphasizes nuance and
expressive depth rather than mere technical display. He invented
some musical forms, such as the ballade,[3] but his most
significant innovations were within existing structures such as the
piano sonata, waltz, nocturne, étude, and prelude. His works are
often cited as being among the mainstays of Romanticism in
19th-century classical music. Additionally, Chopin was the first
western classical composer to imbue Slavic elements into his music;
to this day his mazurkas and polonaises are the cornerstone of
Polish nationalistic classical music.
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